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Attraction and Repulsion: Understanding Aristotle’S Poiein and Paschein Marjolein Oele University of San Francisco, [email protected]

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Attraction and Repulsion: Understanding Aristotle’S Poiein and Paschein Marjolein Oele University of San Francisco, Moele@Usfca.Edu The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences 2012 Attraction and Repulsion: Understanding Aristotle’s Poiein and Paschein Marjolein Oele University of San Francisco, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.usfca.edu/phil Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Oele, Marjolein, "Attraction and Repulsion: Understanding Aristotle’s Poiein and Paschein" (2012). Philosophy. Paper 19. http://repository.usfca.edu/phil/19 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts and Sciences at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Attraction and Repulsion: Understanding Aristotle’s Poiein and Paschein Submission for Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal December 6, 2010 Introduction Philosophical scholarship in the 20th and 21st centuries has shown a renewed interest in the concepts of motion and activity. Within Aristotle scholarship, this renewed interest has led to a surge in studies examining concepts such as physis,1 kinēsis,2 dynamis and energeia.3 Although these concepts are indeed pivotal to Aristotle‘s thinking, it is surprising that other concepts, which equally express motion and activity,4 have received much less attention. Two terms have been especially neglected: the correlated concepts of ―acting‖ (poiein) and ―being acted upon‖ (paschein).5 There are several reasons why this failure to attend to poiein and paschein is unjustified and, in fact, constitutes scholarly neglect that needs to be rectified. First, these concepts emerge at pivotal places in Aristotle‘s oeuvre: poiein and paschein are two of the ten categories pertinent to grasping the ultimate referents of linguistics, semantics, and metaphysics. Secondly, they play an important role in helping one understand the principles that rule processes such as generation 1 Cf. S. Waterlow, Nature, Change, and Agency in Aristotle’s Physics: A Philosophical Study, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982 and H.S. Lang, The Order of Nature in Aristotle’s Physics: Place and the Elements, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998. 2 Cf. L.A. Kosman, ―Aristotle‘s Definition of Motion,‖ in: Phronesis: A Journal of Ancient Philosophy 14, 1969, pp. 40-62; D. W. Graham, ―States and Performances: Aristotle‘s Test,‖ in: Philosophical Quarterly 30, 1980, pp. 117- 130; D.W. Graham, ―Aristotle‘s Definition of Motion,‖ in: Ancient Philosophy 8, fall 1988, pp. 209-215. 3 Cf. J. Stallmach, Dynamis und energeia; Untersuchungen am Werk des Aristoteles zur Problemgeschichte von Möglichkeit und Wirklichkeit, Meisenheim am Glan: A. Hain, 1959. 4 Our paper examines the general notion of motion and activity, including both kinēsis and energeia. For this reason we will speak both of ―motion‖ and ―activity.‖ We will explicate this further in section 2 (b) of this paper. 5 In our view, by translating poiein as ―acting‖ and paschein as ―being acted upon,‖ we can do justice to the relationship between the two terms, as it allows us to hear both the active voice associated with poiein in Attic Greek and the passive voice associated with paschein; for a further elaboration of the active and the passive voice, see the first section of our paper. However, since even such a provisional translation of poiein as ―acting‖ and paschein as ―being acted upon‖ could interfere with grasping the full meaning of these two terms, we will mostly use transliterations of these terms. 1 and corruption in the sublunary world.6 Moreover, their importance increases when it is realized that Aristotle appears to have devoted a whole book to the concepts of poiein and paschein, as Diogenes Laertius testifies.7 Yet, what exactly is the significance of poiein and paschein: what kind of motion or activity do these two notions designate? This question is closely intertwined with an inquiry into the relationship between these two concepts, since they are often mentioned together and used as correlatives. Thus, our inquiry into the meaning of poiein and paschein needs to ask the important question of why there are two categories and not one to designate motion or activity. Although this question is hardly new – it has already been raised by Plotinus,8 among others – it has largely been forgotten, and its importance has been overlooked. Our paper seeks to revive the question of why there are two categories rather than one, and offers a new solution. Our main thesis is that the relationship between poiein and paschein involves a dynamic of attraction and repulsion, which explains both their identification with and distinction from each other. We speak of attraction since the two concepts at times appear to be so correlated that they almost collapse into one another as if they formed one concept. At other times, however, poiein and paschein appear to be opposed as two utterly distinct ideas (signifying ‗active‘ and 6 Cf. the title of Burnyeat‘s essay ―Aristotle on the Foundations of Sublunary Physics,‖ which serves as an introduction to the collection of essays edited by F. de Haas and J. Mansfeld: Aristotle’s On Generation and Corruption I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004. In his essay, Burnyeat addresses how On Generation and Corruption discusses foundations on different levels: physical, conceptual, and teleological (pp.13-24). Cf. also Mueller, who speaks of GC as ―a presentation of the general principles for studying the features of the sublunar world‖ (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2005-06-17). 7 According to Diogenes Laertius, the title of this (now lost) work is: ―perˆ toà p£scein À peponqšnai.” Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers V.22, translated by R.D. Hicks (London: Heinemann) 1925. Cf. also A. Trendelenburg, Geschichte der Kategorienlehre, Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1864 [1963], p. 131. The latter speaks, however, about ―perˆ toà poie‹n kaˆ peponqšnai.‖ The fact that ―perˆ toà p£scein À peponqšnai” has been catalogued by Diogenes Laertius among Aristotle‘s logical works leads Moraux to suggest that this work consisted of an examination of paschein as ―one of the categories of being‖ (P. Moraux. Les listes anciennes des ouvrages d’Aristote, Louvain: Éditions Universitaires de Louvain, 1951, p. 46). 8 Cf. Plotinus, Enneads VI.1.11 and VI. 3.28. Plotinus, Enneads, with an English translation by A.H. Armstrong, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966. 2 ‗passive‘ causality respectively), and thereby seem to repulse each other. Aristotle‘s refusal to collapse poiein and paschein into one another while simultaneously showing their correlation demonstrates his acknowledgement of the dynamic that is at the heart of motion or activity: an irresolvable tension between an ‗active‘ and ‗passive‘ factor that both attract and repulse each another. In the following, we will first explore the meaning of poiein and paschein in the Categories and On Generation and Corruption. Subsequently, we will first offer proof to suggest that poiein and paschein can be unified in one concept, and then arguments demonstrating the need for their separation. Ultimately, this will lead us to the conclusion that poiein and paschein are caught in a dynamic between attraction and repulsion, caused by mutual dependence and irrevocable difference. 1. Poiein and paschein as correlated categories and as contrary principles of physical change In the Categories, Aristotle lists poiein and paschein as two of the ten categories: Of things said without any combination, each signifies either substance (oÙs…a) or quantity (posÕn) or qualification (poiÕn) or relation (prÒj ti) or where (poà) or when 3 (pot•) or being-in-a-position (ke‹sqai) or having (œcein) or acting (poie‹n) or being acted upon (p£scein) (Categories 4, 1b25-1b28).9 The linguistic morphology10 of poiein and paschein unlocks their meaning. In contrast to the other eight categories that are all expressed in ―static‖ terms (such as nouns, adverbs, or interrogatives), poiein and paschein are grammatically expressed in ―dynamic‖11 terms, i.e., as verbal infinitives.12 Their morphology emphasizes that poiein and paschein are referents for the verbal constituents of sentences. From a semantic perspective, this means that poiein and paschein denote motions or activities. What distinguishes poiein and paschein is their voice: ―cuts‖ or ―walks‖ are verbs designating motions expressed in the active voice13 to be categorized as poiein; in contrast, ―being cut‖ or ―being walked‖ are in the passive voice,14 illustrating paschein. The recognition of the difference between the active and passive voice is important, since it implies that Aristotle is sensitive to the various directions that motions and activities can take. In other words, there is a difference in meaning at the very root of every motion and activity. This 9 We have modified Ackrill‘s translation. Cf. Aristotle. Categories and De Interpretatione, translated by J.L. Ackrill, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963. 10 The grammatical expressions Aristotle employs to denote the various categories are ―grammatically heterogeneous‖ (Ackrill,1963, p. 78). 11 Cf. H. Bonitz, Über die Kategorien des Aristoteles, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1853 [1967] p. 57. 12 This is something which they share with the
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